I Will Be Around
by Numb3rsfan
Summary: Someone kidnaps Charlie in the dead of night.  Very little clues are found, so it is a race against the clock to locate Charlie before his time runs out.
1. Story Statistics

**I Will Be Around**

"**The Stats"**

**Fandom: Numb3rs**

**Author: Numb3rsfan**

**Title: I Will Be Around**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Warnings: Angst, H/C**

**Disclaimer: As per usual, don't own em', don't make any money off of em.**

**Summary: Someone kidnaps Charlie in the dead of night. Very little clues are found, so it is a race against the clock to locate Charlie before his time runs out.**


	2. The Darkness of the Night Prologue

**I Will Be Around**

**By Numb3rsfan**

The clock in the hall of the Eppes abode struck midnight, with its gongs going off with crisp clarity. However, nothing else in the house could be heard, but down below, in the basement, the tap, tap of a piece of chalk hitting the chalkboard could dimly be heard if you were listening for it.

Charlie Eppes suppressed a yawn as he finished yet another equation for his next presentation in two days. Since he had been so focused on helping his brother, Don, solve his cases, Charlie had never had the time to work on his own mathematical problems, until his father told him that he had to "understand what was important," and that "not all things revolved around helping his brother." Even Don himself had told Charlie that, but Charlie hadn't listened, until 7 PM that night, when Amita phoned and asked if Charlie had finished his presentation and had faxed it to his office computer.

Of course, Charlie had come up with some excuse as to why he hadn't, before he hung up the phone and dashed down to the basement to start work on his presentation.

Charlie was so intent on his problem that he didn't even hear the basement door open, nor hear the sound of leather boots on the creaky, wooden stairs.

But he did hear the sound of a cocking gun before it was thrust in to his back, causing him to arch his back as he grasped the piece of chalk tighter in his hands.

"Don't turn around professor, and don't even think about raising that cute little voice of yours. Because if you do, you are going to wind up like my brother….all scattered along the pavement on some deserted road. And we don't want that…do we?" The sinister, yet female voice asked.

"P..please…who are you?" Charlie asked, with a shaky voice as his eyes fixed on the darkness of the room.

"Now why would I tell you that? Because I already know who you are? Don't be naïve professor." The female voice said, before she pulled the trigger and sent Charlie in to unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 1 One Month Prior

**I Will Be Around Chapter 1**

"**One Month Prior"**

Charlie rubbed the sleepers out of his eyes as he sat in one of the bullpen chairs, looking around at the cubicles as he waited for his big brother Don to get done talking to whomever he was talking to on his cell phone, so Charlie could go home.

For the thousandth time Charlie wished that his car hadn't caught on fire. In fact, he wasn't sure how it happened, because it had happened so fast! One minute he was climbing out of it, before he made a mad dash up the steps of his home to grab his lap top, the next thing he knew he was coming back out, laptop in hand and Don and his father were using a garden hose and a fire extinguisher to try and put out the flames that were pouring out from underneath the hood of Charlie's car.

Thankfully the damage had been minor, and Charlie didn't have to go out and buy a new car, but his repair man said that it would be awhile before the car would be drivable, much less operational.

"Alright Charlie, lets go."

Charlie jerked up, startled as he looked at Don with somewhat of a pale face, before he stood up, grabbing his notes and his lap top before following Don out of the office and to the car.

Once at the car, Charlie slid in to the passenger seat of Don's FBI, black SUV, before reaching over and buckling his seatbelt.

"Tough day, huh?" Don said without glancing over at his brother as he pulled out on to the darkened streets of L.A.

"Yeah." Charlie said with a nod of his head, "All of those crazy madmen in there….I really thought that you were getting through to him."

"So did I bro, but you saw em'….he was reaching up to push that button, and if he had, we wouldn't be having this conversation." Don said.

"I know that Don, but….but he had a family….a wife and a daughter….and you just shot him." Charlie said with tears shining in his eyes.

"I know that seein' me shoot someone isn't high on your list Charlie, but…it comes with my job. Tell you the truth; I really don't enjoy it either. I may look like I do, and sometimes I even think that I do, but I really don't." Don said.

All Charlie could really do was just sit there and nod his head wordlessly.

"Oh Clinton….why'd it have to be you?! Why?!!" A lone, female voice wailed in the darkness of the night.

Crystal Boltz had just learned that her baby brother Clinton Boltz had just been shot and killed…by an FBI agent no less!

Crystal had always been the family's 'protector', ever since her father had run out and her mother had drunk herself to death.

It had been the day when Child Services came to place her and her two brothers, Clinton and Chris into a foster home that she decided that her family wasn't going to be split up, so while Child Services came in through the front, she and her brothers had snuck out the back and had kept running.

Ever since then they had always been on the run, dodging cops and angry store owners when they had to steal food so they could eat, but now they were all grown up and trying to find a better life.

Crystal, the eldest was now 25, and Chris her brother was 20, Clinton had just turned 18 when he had run off to join "The Wolfpack," a powerful gang that roamed the streets of LA.

It was through the Wolfpack that Crystal had finally tracked down her baby brother, only to learn that he had been gunned down not twelve hours ago by a crack FBI team led by one Don Eppes.

After learning that, Crystal had retreated to her car, a sandblast colored Impala before she finally broke down in tears.

Now Crystal found herself in her sleazy hotel room, arms cradled at her sides as she curled up next to her stained, rusty, tub.

A handgun lay on the floor within arms reach, the handgun which Crystal had been thinking about using on herself, but the thought of Chris, her other brother who had run away about the same time as Clinton, had stopped her.

"I will find you Chris…..but I'm gonna make those agents pay for killing Clinton…..starting with Don Eppes!" Crystal whispered.


	4. Chapter 2 The Discovery

**I Will Be Around Chapter 2**

"**The Discovery"**

Alan Eppes numbly walked down the stairs of his youngest son's home as he made his way to the kitchen for another cup of coffee. The one cup he had had earlier in the day just wasn't gonna cut it, and he was already fighting against his body's urge for sleep.

Reaching over, Alan poured himself a cup, before heading down to the basement to see if Charlie was there.

All throughout the morning, Alan half expected to see Charlie, but he never saw hide nor hair of him.

"Charlie?" Alan called out as he entered the basement to find nothing there except the usual math covered chalkboards.

He was about to turn around and return to the comfort of the couch when he saw something that made him stop and stare.

It was Charlie's lap top, sitting there on the small desk, still powered up and ready to go.

Seeing this, Alan got a little concerned because he knew that Charlie never went anywhere without his lap top.

Turning, Alan briskly walked back up the stairs and went to the front door, opening it before he looked out, scanning the driveway.

Sure enough, there was nothing there except his own car, and no evidence that anyone had been parked anywhere else on the driveway for sometime.

Not panicking just yet, Alan reached in to his back pocket and removed his cell phone before speed dialing David's number.

He didn't call his eldest son because he didn't want Don to worry, and because it was usually David who would pick Charlie up from the house anyway.

After two rings, Alan heard, "Agent Sinclair."

"David, this is Alan Eppes." Alan said as he closed the front door to Charlie's house.

"Alan!" David said, sounding clearly surprised, "I was fixin' to call Charlie, we need him…is he there?"

That made Alan stop and stare straight ahead for several minutes as his brain fought to process what David had just said.

"That was what I was about to ask you." Alan finally muttered in to his phone's receiver.

"Why's that?" David asked.

"Because Charlie's missing." Came the reply.

The cold, wet feeling of something being thrown in his face instantly woke Charlie from sleep.

"Alright professor, Wakie wakie!" A male voice said from the shadows.

Wait a minute, it wasn't shadows, Charlie thought to himself, it was a blindfold that had been placed over his eyes, it wasn't that the room was dark.

As Charlie's senses came back, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt his head being moved downward as something was dug out of his mouth and then he felt cold air on his tongue…deliciously cold air that Charlie quickly sucked in.

"Please…what do you want?" Charlie whispered after several seconds.

But, that feeble question earned Charlie a harsh slap in the face, to which Charlie moaned as his head was brutally whipped to the side.

"You will speak only when spoken to! Do you understand?!" A harsh voice asked.

When Charlie didn't answer, he was slapped again, this time from the opposite direction, which caused Charlie's head to be whipped to the other side.

"Mister, I said do you understand?" The voice asked again.

That voice, so calm, cool and calculating, nearly gave Charlie the shivers just to think about it, but Charlie was shaking not from that, but from the sheer terror of what was happening to him.

Knowing that he was supposed to answer or risk getting slapped a third time, Charlie swallowed before he said, "Yes…I understand."

"Good!" The voice taunted back.

Charlie listened to the footsteps of the person as he walked around the chair Charlie was so obviously tied to.

The footsteps were something hard…boots…leather boots maybe? Walking on…what was it? Tile…or concrete? Charlie couldn't quite identify, but they did sound slightly familiar to him.

"Now, tell me what you know about one Clinton Boltz, and lemme tell you right now, you better speak up, or you won't be able to speak at all!" The sinister voice warned.

"He was uh…" Charlie visibly swallowed in fear as his mind raced, trying to formulate a correct response as his mind tried to control his body's fear, "He was uh..m…mad bomber."

Charlie waited for the next question, but what he got was a surprise. At first he felt nothing, and then he felt a burning sensation on his chest! The burning was so bad that Charlie screamed, seconds before the sound of a fire extinguisher drowned out his screams.

"You ever say a lie like that again and it won't be a single lit match that I drop on your chest, boy!" The voice said.

That threat scared Charlie so much that he clamped his mouth shut, his breathing already fairly hard because of the pain.

As his jaw shook, Charlie thought, _'DON!'_


	5. Chapter 3 The Phone Call

**I Will Be Around Chapter 3**

"**The Phone Call"**

"So…let me get this straight. Charlie was gone and you didn't think to call me first?" Don asked, scrunching up his eyebrows as he looked at his father in disbelief.

He had been at the office working on another case when David had walked over to his cubicle and said, "Your brother's missing."

That had caused Don to put his phone down and rise from his seat before asking, "What do you mean, 'missing'?"

"Exactly that, Don. Charlie's disappeared." Came David's reply.

After that, Don had gathered up his team, consisting of David, Megan and Colby, and had high tailed it back to his father's…no, make that his brother's house.

Now Don was waiting for his father's reply to a simple question. He sure didn't have to wait long, though.

"Because I didn't want you to get hysterical like you are now!" Alan said, pushing his arms out a little before drawing them back.

"Hysterical? Dad, I don't get hysterical!" Don replied.

"I know some people who'd beg to differ." Alan muttered back with a slight roll to his eyes as, behind Don, Colby and David smiled a little and had to fight the urge to stop from chuckling at the remark.

Sighing, Don closed his eyes before opening them again.

"Alright Dad, just take it from the top and tell us what happened." He said.

"I already told you. I got up this morning, went downstairs for a cup of coffee, before going to check on Charlie." Alan began.

"Who wasn't in the basement." David prompted.

"Right. What was in the basement was his lap top, which was still turned on." Alan continued.

"Well, Charlie could have gone to CalSci, or he could have went somewhere to think." Colby volunteered from behind, as he jotted down what Alan had said, in his notebook.

At that, Don shook his head and said, "No, I already called Larry and Amita. They haven't seen him all day, so I know he's not at CalSci, plus if he were to go somewhere, he would have brought his lap top with him."

Colby had no choice but to nod his head at that before he flipped his notebook closed.

Turning to Megan, Don asked, "So, there's not even a trace of a cookie on this one? No finger or footprints…or anything?"

Megan shook her head before she said, "No, nothing. The only fingerprints we found were Charlie's, and they were over practically everything in that room."

"Damn it." Don muttered, running a hand through his hair as he thought of all the terrible scenarios that could be happening to his brother at that moment.

"We also have to wonder why someone would want to take Charlie in the first place. I mean, what would they have to gain if they didn't know who he was?" David asked.

That remark got Don to thinking.

'_If they didn't know who he was? They probably wouldn't have been so careful as to leave no trace…..'_ He thought.

"No, they most certainly knew who he was if they were to take him from his own basement with no sound and no trace." Don said.

"But what would they have to gain besides nabbing a math professor? They couldn't know about his other consulting jobs." Colby said.

"Maybe not, but they do know that they'd have leverage over the FBI, specifically over this team, and specifically over Don." Megan remarked.

"So, your thinking that this is what…some type of revenge over Don? For something he did, or for someone he put away…" David said.

"The Lord knows how many people would want revenge on Don for what he's done. And some people do have enough power to make that happen." Megan continued.

They were still talking when Don's cell phone went off.

Quickly, Don took it out of his pocket, flipping it open before hitting the green button and putting it to his ear.

"Eppes." He said, hoping against hope that it was Charlie.

"Nice of you to answer so promptly, Agent." The calm, cool voice said through the receiver.

"Who is this?" Don demanded to know, having a sinking feeling in his gut that these were the people who had his brother.

"Never you mind who we are Agent, just know that we have your brother, and unless you do what we say when we say, you will never see your darling baby brother again." The voice said again.

"How do I know that you have him?" Don asked, stalling for time as he looked up at his team and mouthed, "it's them!"

A split second later, Charlie's scared voice came over the line.

"Don?"

Don could tell that Charlie had been crying, and that he sounded really, really scared.

"Don't worry buddy, I'm going to find you. You hear me? You're going to be alright." Don said.

"How touching….not!" The voice said again, as it returned with its annoying coolness.

"Now…are you ready to listen?" It asked.

Swallowing, Don nodded his head and said, "Go on…I'm listening. But I want you to know that if you so much as hurt one single hair on his head, I'm going to find you and break your limbs one at a time!"

There was a pause before the voice said, "Let me tell you what threats get you."

A second later, a screaming Charlie could be heard. It was so loud that Don had to hold the phone away from his ear, making his whole team cringe when they heard the sound emanating from the speaker.

When the scream had died down, Don put the phone back to his ear as the voice said, "That was only one match. Next time it will be a loaded gun. You hear me Agent?"

Gritting his teeth, Don said, "I hear you."

"Good! Now, listen closely….." The voice began, before the person began to lay out the instructions for Don to follow, while all the while, Don was fuming, and praying that his brother would be alright.


End file.
